From the beginning of French rule of Missouri in 1720 through this statesabolition of slavery in 1865 liberty was always the goal of the vast majorityof its ens... » 

From the beginning of French rule of Missouri in 1720 through this statesabolition of slavery in 1865 liberty was always the goal of the vast majorityof its enslaved people. The presence in eastern Kansas of a host ofabolitionists from New England made slaveholding risky business. Mennonites andQuakers had voiced their detestation of human bondage long before the UnitedStates existed. A number of devout persons served time in the Missouri statepenitentiary for slave stealing. Based largely on old newspapers prisonrecords pardon papers and other archival materials this book is an accountof the legal and physical obstacles that slaves faced in their quest forfreedom and of the consequences suffered by persons who tried to help them. Itlooks at the widely held belief in slave states that African Americansthoroughly enjoyed being owned and that they only left their owners becausethey were enticed by abolitionists. It is an overview of attitudes towardslavery in early American abolitionist writings and the institutions protectionin both the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. It discussesthe experiences of particular individuals such as Elizabeth Keckley a formerslave and seamstress who became Mary Todd Lincolns best friend after PresidentLincolns assassination. It also examines the Underground Railroad on Missourisborders. Four appendices provide details from two Spanish colonial censusreports a list of abolitionist prison inmates with details about their timeserved and the percentages of African Americans still in bondage in 16jurisdictions from 1820 to 1860. «